Gap Inc. recently revealed the 20 lovable finalists in its nationwide contest to find the next faces of babyGap and GapKids. Out of nearly a million entries submitted online by hopeful parents, Madison, 9, from Long Beach, CA, was selected by the judges as one of the 20 finalists.

From Sept. 22 to Oct. 22, parents across the country uploaded their favorite photos of their babies and kids at gap.com/castingcall. Gap judges then narrowed down the pool of nearly one million entrants to 20 finalists - 10 babies (ages four and under) and 10 kids (ages five to 10). Through Dec. 21, Americans can visit gap.com/castingcall to vote for their favorite babies and kids. The winners will be revealed in February 2010.

Madison is no stranger to the camera. Her mom Debra told OC180NEWS.com that Madison has worked as a model several times before the Gap contest. “She has done probably about five commercials, a TV show, a movie, and then some print work.”

Debra said this contest was different from other modeling Madison has done because there was no audition. “We were just really shocked to even get the call. Even though she’s worked before, because there were some many kids in the contest.”

Madison said “My favorite thing to do on the weekend is hang out with friends, shopping and dancing. I love to make up my own dances. I love to dance, watch my brother play ice hockey and do crafts. When I grow up. I want to be a dancer, an actress and person who rescues animals.”

While the first round of elimination was conducted by Gap judges, selection of the four winners will be by an online vote of the people. Now through December 21, voters may log onto gap.com/castingcall and decide which four children - one baby girl and one baby boy for babyGap and one girl and one boy for GapKids - Gap will feature in store windows from coast-to-coast.

"Parents' enthusiasm for the Gap Casting Call made this year's contest the biggest to date," said Pam Wallack, president of babyGap, GapKids and GapMaternity. "We received nearly one million entries, beating the record from the past three years. Each year the decision process gets increasingly harder. There are so many outstanding babies and kids to pick from, choosing just 20 finalists to represent our brand out of all these adorable children was challenging to say the least.”

The four winners of this year's Casting Call will be featured in the windows of babyGap and GapKids stores from coast-to-coast and will receive other incredible prizes from Gap and Disney including a $1,000 Gap gift card and a Disney on Broadway package in New York or Las Vegas for a two-night VIP Lion King experience.

So, what about that California Look?
We were curious to find that of the 20 finalists, nearly one half, (8), are from the Golden State. That is many more than any other state. We also noted that although Gap is an international retailer, the San Francisco based firm is certainly a California company. We asked Kim Terry, Gap spokesperson, about that and she told OC180NEWS.com that the judges did not know the states when the kids were selected as the finalists. We suggested to Terry that perhaps, there just might be something to that California Look. She did not want to speculate about that, but as all born and bred Californians know--of course there is a special California Look. Does a certain Beach Boys song come to mind?